Picking the right Creedmoor cartridge.

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Northern Shooter

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I've been scouring the forums for a thread that compares all 4 of the Creedmoor cartridges and didn't come across one.

I'm looking for a lightweight, smallbore caliber for my next hunting rig and think I may actually jump on the Creedmoor train.

I'm familiar with the 6.5 but have been reading into the 22, 25 and 6mm lately as comparison.

Looking for a short action, small bore hunting cartridge with minimal recoil set up for medium sized game. Something that will be good for goat, sheep, deer, pronghorn etc out to say 500m. Ideally suited for a shorter ~20" barrel.

For those that jumped on one of the other 3, how do they stack up against the 6.5? The 6.5 Creedmoor is likely the easy button here as rifle and ammo availability is the greatest, however I am interested to hear the argument for the other 3. What do they offer over the 6.5?

The 25 seems to match the 6.5's ballistics with less recoil, however ammo availability seems to be limited. I'm not seeing many rifles chambered for this cartridge.

22 Creedmoor ammo and rifles also seem limited. Is this more of a varmint round vs a deer cartridge? It's velocity leads me to believe coyote round.

Is the 6mm the sweet spot in terms of ballistics, cost and recoil? I've seen videos of this taking elk and moose. What do you think?
 
savagelh said:
I have a couple 6.5's. I'd probably go 6mm creedmoor. The only downside is brass is tricky to find. I might end uo doing a 6mm build in the near future.
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I'm not a reloader so would be sticking with the factory ammo offerings. Sourceing factory ammo for the 6mm doesn't seem to be an issue.

Is there much truth to it being a barrel burner? I listened to a Vortex podcast that claimed it's only good for 1,000-1,200 rounds.
 
Northern Shooter said:
I'm not a reloader so would be sticking with the factory ammo offerings. Sourceing factory ammo for the 6mm doesn't seem to be an issue.

Is there much truth to it being a barrel burner? I listened to a Vortex podcast that claimed it's only good for 1,000-1,200 rounds.
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I cant see it being that bad since its not overly overbore. As long as you dont push it too hard I would think you should double that. The 22 cm on the other hand will burn barrels. If your shooting factory ammo you'll probably be stuck with hornady for a while but I dont know much about shooting factory ammo.
 
I bit on the hype of the 6.5 at one point. I have had at least 3 rifles chambered in it, I currently don’t have any. Perhaps I just don’t like to go with the flow, or perhaps it doesn’t fit my style very well, but the trajectory basically matches a 30-06 which offers more knock down power. When I want a smaller bore cartridge, I want one that can offer some improvement in trajectory, something like 243, 25-06 and 257 wby.

As I read what you are looking at, I would take a hard look at the 6mm and 25 options as I feel they offer what was missing with the 6.5. I haven’t had a lot of experience with the 6mm or 243, I haven’t complete confidence in the 25 cal doing all you are wanting to do though.
 
If you’re shooting factory ammo you shouldn’t be worried about the barrel going early…price out 1200 rounds of factory rolled ammo for one and put that in a column beside a barrel replacement cost, lol…$3-4K+ in ammo vs $1K+ for a barrel.
Also, accuracy and barrel life are subjective to what what you deem minimum accuracy out of it; what a competitive shooter will accept would likely be a tighter group than an seasonal hunter who only shoots a couple of rounds a year to confirm it works.
also consider your intended use of it, a hunting rifle usually doesn’t get shot much. My guess is 95% of all hunting rifles see less than a box of ammo through them in a year (my WAG on an average). So using it in this manner after the initial fun use of a new rifle a 1200 round barrel still would last 50+ years…and maybe double that if you can live with the groups opening up a bit.
I just don’t have enough gas in the tank left to worry about that, lol…and most of us on here likely don’t either.

As for your intended use and given choices the 6mm will probably last longer on the shelf than the 22 or 25’s; it’s had more time to get a footing and 6mm’s are more popular than 25’s in general (my opinion) so factory chamberings and ammo availability will probably outlast the 22 and 25.
The 6.5 is here to stay so if you want the longest lasting lowest risk to lack of factory ammo it’s the obvious choice.
However if you reload and like tinkering the 25 with some of the newer heavier bullets would be something I would want; seeing it’s the next caliber being pushed by manufacturers and I believe it’s about at the lower power floor for a popular competitive division (NRL hunter?) R&D money and the subsequent new products will flow for some time until something else overshadows it which likely won’t be for sometime so it will probably only get better as an option.
 
6.5 is certainly the easy button, lots of rifles, lots of ammo.

I have no love for 6.5mm as a caliber though, and 500m is a long shot for big game hunting with a 6mm in my opinion, so the 25 would get my vote.

But really I wouldn't buy any as I have a 7mm08 that already covers the same niche - looking at Hornady ammo their 7mm08 150gr eld-x offering has slightly more energy at 500 vs their 6.5 or 25cm using 143 and 128gr eld-x bullets respectively.
 
If you are into Podcasts, Hornady recently did one comparing all four of their Creedmoor cartridges. It was a great listen, the 25 seems like a real winner for many applications. I just grabbed a 6.5, it was the easy button as far as rifle and ammo availability.
 
Crashman said:
If you are into Podcasts, Hornady recently did one comparing all four of their Creedmoor cartridges. It was a great listen, the 25 seems like a real winner for many applications. I just grabbed a 6.5, it was the easy button as far as rifle and ammo availability.
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I did, that was one of the many I binged this week. They did seem to prefer the 25. Bullet selection was the only hit against it.
 
Suther said:
6.5 is certainly the easy button, lots of rifles, lots of ammo.

I have no love for 6.5mm as a caliber though, and 500m is a long shot for big game hunting with a 6mm in my opinion, so the 25 would get my vote.

But really I wouldn't buy any as I have a 7mm08 that already covers the same niche - looking at Hornady ammo their 7mm08 150gr eld-x offering has slightly more energy at 500 vs their 6.5 or 25cm using 143 and 128gr eld-x bullets respectively.
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Other than the 6.5x55 I don't own anything in this space, and I'm looking for a short action in a modern rifle so my Swedish Mauser won't keep cut it here.

I ran the numbers on all the Creedmoor's. All but the 22 were producing over 1,000 ft-bs at 500 yards (not meters). The 22 is about 960 ft-lbs. 500 yards is likely beyond any shot I'd ever take on game but I used it as an easy interval to measure by. If they make the minimum at 500 they will be more than good enough at 400, at 300 etc.

I'm currently shopping Sako/Bergara/Browning and it doesn't look like the 25 is offered in any of those rifles.
 
Ungrateful said:
243 Winchester. The guys who 15 years ago said it’s a woman’s cartridge are the game guys who now can’t stop talking about 25 cm. They are in fact the same thing.
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6mm Creedmoor but point taken. The 25 Creed would be the new 257 Roberts.

I never viewed .243 as a elk or moose cartridge, but I know plenty of both have been taken with it.

I'm viewing the 6mm CM more of a white tail and down kind of cartridge.
 
I think the .257 is the ballistic winner of them, but thats subjective. Bullet selection and ammo is its downfall. My 25 shoots the 135 berger at 2850 out of a 26” tube.

The 6.5 is easy to find good-cheap ammo. You might want to see what kind of performance you’re leaving on the table going with a 20” barrel. It might be hard to push those heavier bullets fast enough to do what you want them to do at 500 yards.

What bullets are available for the 6? I think you’d have to go over 100 grains to make it worthwhile?

Personally I’d see what kind of ammo I wanted to run, estimate speed out of a 20” tube and see how much energy you have at 500m. That and there’s also alot of grizzly bears in the places you mentioned. I’d be looking at a 6.5prc.
 
The 22 Creed will produce 1000 ft lbs past 600 yards, although ft lbs is pretty meaningless.

What isn’t meaningless is that with the 88 ELD m at 3215 fps muzzle velocity, it carries an 1800 fps impact velocity past 900 yards at my elevation and current temperature.

I haven’t shot any deer or coyotes with a 22 Creedmoor yet, but I have no doubt that it will operate well within your stated parameters.

Factory ammo and rifles are tougher to source though, so realistically the 6.5 Creedmoor is the easiest route. Not the flashiest route, but it will get you there.
 
Bustercluck said:
I think the .257 is the ballistic winner of them, but thats subjective. Bullet selection and ammo is its downfall. My 25 shoots the 135 berger at 2850 out of a 26” tube.

The 6.5 is easy to find good-cheap ammo. You might want to see what kind of performance you’re leaving on the table going with a 20” barrel. It might be hard to push those heavier bullets fast enough to do what you want them to do at 500 yards.

What bullets are available for the 6? I think you’d have to go over 100 grains to make it worthwhile?

Personally I’d see what kind of ammo I wanted to run, estimate speed out of a 20” tube and see how much energy you have at 500m. That and there’s also alot of grizzly bears in the places you mentioned. I’d be looking at a 6.5prc.
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I'm accounting for roughly 100 fps less velocity of out a 20" barrel, not sure if one would lose less velocity vs the others.

For 6mm factory ammo I'm currently seeing 80gr, 87gr, 95gr, 103gr, 105gr, 107gr, 108gr and 112gr. So a decide selection.
 
Northern Shooter said:
6mm Creedmoor but point taken. The 25 Creed would be the new 257 Roberts.

I never viewed .243 as a elk or moose cartridge, but I know plenty of both have been taken with it.

I'm viewing the 6mm CM more of a white tail and down kind of cartridge.
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You’re trying to decide between a bunch of necked down 308’s and while one of them might be a better varmint cartridge, none of them are going to be much better than 243 on elk or moose. 308 is the easy button.
 
Ungrateful said:
You’re trying to decide between a bunch of necked down 308’s and while one of them might be a better varmint cartridge, none of them are going to be much better than 243 on elk or moose. 308 is the easy button.
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I don't intend to use these on elk or moose, I've got another dozen cartridges more appropriate for those.
 
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